MIAMI – The turnover count is obscene. The offense appears to have been drawn up from the “New Jersey Nets Playbook,” the end of the Millennium edition. It might seem easy to point to the new kid, er, new old man, on the block, Patrick Ewing.

But that’s wrong. He is definitely not to blame for Seattle’s woes.

“You turn it over 20 times, you’re not going to beat good teams,” said coach Paul Westphal, whose Sonics went after the equally struggling Heat here last night.

Seattle has average 21.3 turnovers a game and was coming off a 25-mistake nightmare in Orlando Monday night. Only the Cavs, at 22.7, had a higher turnover rate in the entire league. So it’s kind of hard to say Ewing is at fault, even if he is the most obvious change to the Sonics’ landscape.

“[Bleep] turnovers,” stressed Gary Payton, offering up an opposing viewpoint. “I don’t care about damn turnovers. We just ain’t playing well. We turn the ball over, we’re still in the game. We just need to do other things. A lot of things. We need a lot of things around this team. We need a lot of [stuff] around here. We’re 1-3 and we ain’t jelling. That’s losing. We’re tired of it. As long as us 12 get together we’ll be fine.”

And while holding on to the ball became sort of a chore for the Sonics, stopping Ewing was big on the minds of the Heat, who have been causing their own problems, Riley said, because of mistakes. Mistakes lead to less effort which leads to lousy defense which leads to defeats which lead to long Riley practices.

“There are three factors,” Riley said. “Mistakes at inopportune times and then effort drops and when effort drops you stop defending.”

Riley has tried simplifying to no avail and last night he wound up with another headache in the form of Ewing who he insists is still one of the top at his position. And Ewing was not exactly what Riley was hoping to see at a time when he’s trying to right his own ship.

“The kind of memories I have are nightmares,” Riley admitted. “I know him real well and he’s got no compassion for his old coach. He stuck two daggers in my heart the last two years. I’m going to tell him that when he retires. He’s still a very competent center, and once he gets his legs under him with what Seattle has around him, I think he’s going to be very effective.”

Brian Grant, whom Riley called “the third rated power forward” in the league, by default, figured to get some time in on Ewing (9.3 points, 9.3 rebounds), behind starter Duane Causwell.

“I know Ewing. He is going to be a presence one way or another. You try to pull him out on the perimeter and if he lets you, shoot it. If he steps up, you go by him. It sounds easy to say but it’s not that easy,” Grant acknowledged. “He goes out there to play every minute that he’s on the court. You don’t know how his body is feeling but you know he’ll bring effort.”

Riley said he believes Miami is “on the short list” for Joe Smith. The Heat spoke to Smith’s agent, Dan Fagan, on a matter involving another player, the injured Ricky Davis.

“From what we understand,” Riley said, there has not been any communication with Joe Smith and any coaches or any general managers because they’re waiting (for the arbitrator’s ruling). I do think he has a short list of teams that he’d be interested in if this thing (ruling) doesn’t work.”

GRAPH: SEE EW SOON

Patrick Ewing and the Knicks will meet for the first time on Tuesday. here’s game-by-game look at what the Big Fella’s been doing with the Seattle SuperSonics.